Mark this under Speculative, but Marriott is sending out e-mails to Marriott Rewards enticing Marriott Rewards Members to add their birthdays. This is a quick way to possible increase your points balance, or otherwise see what Marriott’s proposed birthday surprise is.

Add your Birthday to your Marriott Rewards Account

Adding your birthday to your Marriott Rewards account is actually really quick and easy. You can click on the link in the e-mail, or go here, sign in, and you’ll arrive at the below screen. Marriott only wants to know your birth month and birth day, so anyone who’s nervous about Marriott knowing your age – you needn’t worry.

There’s no telling what Marriott will be giving Marriott Rewards Members on their birthdays, but, if I had to guess, it’d probably be points. Besides, who doesn’t like points?

Marriott Likes to give Marriott Rewards Members Points

This is yet another in a long line of nice gestures for Marriott Rewards. Earlier this year, they sent me a nice tweet and gave me 500 points. Not huge, but its the thought that counts:

Overall, this isn’t going to be a game changer, but its another example of Marriott doing the right thing. Small gestures–500 points for example doesn’t really move the needle–that don’t cost the company much, helps members to feel appreciated, and to continue to patronage Marriott hotels. Its kind of like how American used to deposit some miles into members accounts after you did a redemption, as a way to keep you engaged in the program.

Did you receive an e-mail invitation to add your birthday to your Marriott Rewards account?

I’ve learned over the years that goals are integral for me. They help me to push myself to always improve. I set some to challenge my abilities, and some are just fun. My crazy 2018 loyalty goal is one that covers the latter two categories. It will take ingenuity, but its a fun one to have.

Here is what you need with respect to points and elite qualifying nights to achieve various status levels.

Marriott Lifetime Status thresholds.

You’ll see that based on my current status, I’m 99 nights 662,410 Marriott Points away from attaining Lifetime Platinum Elite.

My strategy toward Lifetime Marriott Platinum Elite

I’m still forming my overall strategy, but the biggest challenge is those 662,410 Marriott Points. Elite Qualifying Nights (EQN) are easy compared. So some options I’m looking at are:

Sharing my referral link for the Personal Marriott Rewards Visa – you can get 75,000 points after $3,000 spend. Note this can earn up to 100,000 points if 5 folks choose to sign up (Thank You, if you do!)

In what is perhaps a blast from the past, I received an e-mail earlier today with an offer from PointsHound – Earn up to 10,000 United Miles per night.

PointsHound back working with United?

The last I could find of United and PointsHound working together was back in 2013, when they announced that they were no longer working with United. Quite honestly, I lost track of them after that. I had always been concerned about whether or not I’d get elite qualifying nights, and so I never jumped at the bonus offers.

The current offer is pretty enticing, but I’m still not sure that I’ll bite, check it out below:

Well, a lot has changed, thanks to the various changes we’ve seen in the travel industry. The Marriott-SPG Merger is probably the biggest driver for people to look more at Marriott, but I suspect that Chase’s Ritz Carlton credit card probably had some influence there as well.

A brief review of Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages

There are a few Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages, and they further break out based on how many miles you’d like to have transferred to your airline program of choice. The one standard across all packages is that you get a 7 night hotel stay. Of course, the category of that hotel stay also breaks out. Needless to say, a picture will depict this much more clearly:

Tons of opportunity with the Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages

But, the tricky part, you might be thinking, is how to get all those miles? If you’re utilizing the two player game style game–but instead, applying for credit cards rather than chasing Delta Airlines status–then you might have nice balances in each player’s accounts, but perhaps not enough for the package you want.

Marriott typically will let you transfer 50,000 Marriott Rewards points per year. Lets say that 50,000 points isn’t enough, what do you do? Well, apparently, it is possible to transfer more points, if it is for a specific award, and your partner doesn’t have enough miles in their account. Think a week’s stay at a category 9 hotel, or higher, or longer. Stays like that take lots of points. Hundreds of thousands of points. Kind’ve similar to the amounts of some of those packages in the photo above.

Wrapping Up

There’s a lot of opportunity with the Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages. Especially given the Marriott-SPG Merger and the 3:1 ratio (or, put differently, earn 3 Marriott Rewards per 1 SPG point). Even before the merger, this program was a great way to “rinse” your Marriott Rewards points and convert them into an airline mile currency, at, perhaps not the greatest conversation rate. Now is an excellent time to be looking at these packages.

Why jumping in on this Amazing SPG Transfer Opportunity

My valuation of SPG points have increased significantly over the past few years. I’ve only stayed at a handful of SPG properties, but I’ve been a credit card holder for years, and in fact, my SPG Business AMEX is my first go to, for my reselling business. In fact, I actually used points for my recent stay at the Westin Playa Conchal and can’t wait to return!

In the past year, SPG points have proved exceptionally valuable.

Case 1: Time sensitive promotions to be ready to jump on

Earlier in the year, they were the best opportunity to transfer to Virgin America to participate JetBlue’s rather incredible points balance match – lets say you had a single point in your Virgin America account, transferring 40,000 SPG points to Virgin America would net you 50,000 Virgin America points + 75,000 JetBlue points for a ratio of 1:3.125.

Case 2: Transfer SPG to Marriott

Also, rather popular this year, is the fact that as part of the Marriott-Starwood merger, you can now transfer SPG points to Marriott Rewards, at a ratio of 1:3.

The key here is that you get 7 nights, for example, in a Category 1-5 Hotel, and 100,000 points transferred to the airline of your choice (perhaps Alaska Air?) for 250,000 points… essentially you are paying an average of 21.4k Marriott Points, and you get to “convert” 100,000 points to 100,000 Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. So, while you might not get 65% more miles, you get a stay and get to “wash” your miles into a variety of currencies.

Conclusion

I’m not trying to say that one option is better than any other option. Rather, I want to highlight the fact that what one or more individuals call an “Awesome Deal” may not necessarily be an Awesome Deal for you. The fact of the matter is, at this stage in the game, a deal is incredibly personal. Even the JetBlue match of Virgin America balance, is not a meaningful deal for someone in some areas of the US (and even less a deal for non US readers). Every situation is different, and I think we all need to acknowledge that, and as Matt said recently, we need to be open to saying that we DGAF.

Yes, you read that right. My wife and I just booked an Economy ticket for a long haul international American Airlines flight. Believe it or not, the decision wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be.

Finding the Right Balance

This whole trip was precipitated by especially good business class flights out of Brazil that we booked pretty much on a whim when we saw them. In truth, the flights we got were less than $1600 for the two of us. Just one catch. We had to actually getto Brazil! Well, this wasn’t the first time I’ve gotten great flights out of Brazil, but this time I figured I’d just burn miles, which would be 100,000 AAdvantage Miles round trip per person to fly a less than spectacular business class.

Over the past couple of weeks, my wife and I had been going back and forth, trying to see how we could get more of our Elite Qualifying Miles earlier in the year. We were also trying to get as much of our award travel booked before the upcoming AAdvantage Award Chart Devaluation come late March. For the first time in a while, I was coming up with fewer miles than awards that I wanted to book. I started running the opportunity cost of burning 200,000 AAdvantage miles on an award that didn’t even come close to exciting me. Whereas, if I added just 35,000 miles round trip, per person, my wife and I could fly to Asia, maybe even on Cathay Pacific First Class. I do like Asia, so this was starting to gel.

Searching for business class fares came back with way too high fares. That, coupled with American’s move away from Elite Qualifying Points, and giving at least 1 Elite Qualifying Mile per mile flown, meant that flying a mix of economy and business class fares would not necessarily hurt us in the pursuit of Executive Platinum Status, led me to look for economy pricing. Low and behold, for a little less than our business class tickets from Brazil (and back later in the year), I could find economy flights that dovetailed nicely. Sad that I was happy about this, but I was. A quick 20 minute call to Citi’s Thank You Points line, and we were able to trade in some of our Citi Thank You Points at 1.6 cents per point for those American Airlines flights.

Trying to Enhance the Experience

Luckily, we have Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs), that we can at least attempt to put in place. I say attempt, because ExpertFlyer is not showing anything available now, and not many business class seats currently being sold. I’m not sure if I helped or hurt myself by choosing to fly via Miami instead of Dallas. My goal in that choice was the shortest path. I know, contrary to mileage running practice, but my logic was this: 2,000 miles at the end of the year, probably won’t mean a whole lot, but a few hours less in the back of the plane could mean more to me. Besides, I still plan to requalify in the first half of the year.

Even more interesting, at least to me, is that, while both over-water flights are 777-200’s, the flight home is showing up as the reconfigured. See for yourself, here’s the flight down:

Old 777-200 Configuration

Note, the lack of Main Cabin Extra, however, there is the benefit of 2-5-2 configuration, which for me, just traveling with my wife, I’m thinking I prefer. Now the new configuration:

New 777-200 Configuration

On the new configuration–which incidentally, we have a better shot of upgrades on–they switch to 3-3-3 for Main Cabin Extra, but, worse, further back is now 3-4-3, the dreaded 10-abreast seating. Luckily, at the moment, we’re set to have main cabin extra, but, I’m imagining that those in the back of the plane won’t be nearly as happy as they might have been in a 2-5-2 configuration.

Wrapping Up

For many, this is a non-event, or a #FirstWorldProblem, I acknowledge that, but figured I’d share anyway, because, well, that’s kind’ve the fun of writing. The other side is, the aircraft and configuration you choose to fly can have a very real impact on your passenger experience. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to try the two different configurations out and see the differences.

When I first saw this in my e-mail, I had that sinking feeling in my stomach. You may recall, I revisited the Southampton Princess in Bermuda recently, and it wasn’t my first time there. I probably mentioned in other posts, how Bermuda and the Southampton Princess in particular hold a special place in my heart (and not just having celebrated my honeymoon there). So seeing another company coming in and whisking away the Fairmont name, and upsetting the apple cart, well, I’m concerned.

Let us take a moment and look at the deal:

An unrivalled collection of iconic hotel assets with 155 hotels and resorts, of which 40 are under development

Acquisition to provide AccorHotels with robust and global leadership in luxury hotels, a key segment in terms of geographic reach, growth potential and profitability, for long-term value creation

AccorHotels will pay for the acquisition by issuing 46.7 million new Accor shares and a cash payment of $840 million (€768 million) – Qatar Investment Authority and Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia are to become major shareholders, with 10.5% and 5.8% of the share capital* respectively

Transaction will be accretive to earnings per share from the second year with €65 million in revenue and cost synergies identified in the medium term

Something else interesting from the announcement is this:

AccorHotels today announces the signing of an agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) of Saudi Arabia and Oxford Properties, an Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) company for the acquisition of FRHI Holdings Ltd (FRHI), parent of Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel.

For me, that says that there are a whole lot more players than just Accor, Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel. Perhaps it shouldn’t be big to me, considering I hadn’t realized that Qatar Investment Authority had been involved beforehand, see below:

His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, CEO of Qatar Investment Authority, said: “Since making our investment, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International has become a leading luxury hotel company with an expanded international presence. This deal generates the scale needed to drive the next phase of growth in our real estate and hospitality investments. QIA has confidence in AccorHotels and looks forward to becoming a significant shareholder.

So what does this mean?

Unfortunately my crystal ball is in the shop. I for one absolutely love Fairmont Hotels’ loyalty program. I dare say that many love it, as it seems to me, to be quite generous. Perhaps more generous than any other program that I have participated in. Just take a look at this FlyerTalk thread, and you’ll see that many share the dread that I have. Fairmont flew under the radar for many, especially among the major blogs, I know I only started researching it recently. Despite my personal feeling that I wasted my time, I think there are many others who are much more frustrated.

Wrapping Up

Well, I’ll be watching this merger rather intently. I owe my wife a trip back to Bermuda, and I’m sure my parents would love to return. Candidly, I had, at one point considered bringing many friends, and as much of my family as wanted to attend, back for my wife and my ten year anniversary (we’re just under 2 years out, for those of you keeping track). I suspect this merger will happen before that, which is quite sad. But I still believe there is opportunity. Just like many of the mergers we’ve seen over the past five or so years, they take time. Those of you who have the Chase Fairmont Card, leverage it. Meet your spend for the sign on bonus, meet your spend for the bonus night, leverage those free breakfasts, and dining certificates. Perhaps most of all though, however fruitless it may be, let Fairmont know what you think. They are a small enough brand, that just maybe, enough of us sharing on our feelings, may change the course.

What do you think about AccorHotels acquiring Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel?

I’ve written many times about the Power of Shopping Portals so, this got me to thinking. I don’t really talk a lot about Aeroplan, in fact, at the moment, I have no Aeroplan miles even! Aeroplan is the frequent flyer program of Air Canada. Unfortunately, so far as I can tell, Aeroplan’s eStore is not covered by Cashback Monitor, nor evRewards, so they won’t logically come up in a search, unless you specifically go to Aeroplan’s eStore.

Unfortunately, Aeroplan recently announced a devaluation of their award chart going into effect 15 December), but the fact remains, at 5x, it might still be interesting. At 10-15x, as Robert states for those members with Distinction status, it becomes even more interesting.

Of course, it becomes even more interesting if you got a targeted “earn 5x eBay Bucks for 2 days” promotion. Alas, I digress.

But does it make sense to earn Aeroplan miles?

Now, I am not an expert on Aeroplan, but from some research this morning, I came to some observations that I think are meaningful to answer the above question. Below is a snip from a .pdf that displays Aeroplan’s changes (the devaluation, again hits 15 December), but I would highlight that there are some awards that are still reasonable values for partner carriers, when comparing Aeroplan to United, for example.

Aeroplan, before, and after 15 December 2015.

Of course, the award values are all for round trip flights, so divide that by half, and you’ll get the one way award redemption rate.

As you can see, flying business class on a Star Alliance Partner (aka not United Metal), requires significantly fewer miles on Air Canada, than it does on United.

One Caveat: Aeroplan charges fuel surcharges on some carriers (I think Lufthansa), but there are some that don’t charge as much, like LOT Polish Airways, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Swiss, and Turkish.

What if you like Aeroplan but don’t resell (aka eBay 5x/10x isn’t relevant)?

Conclusion

For me, Robert’s tweet this morning was refreshing, because it forced me to look outside of my normal go-to sources. I wanted to first re-familiarize myself with Aeroplan’s award chart to see how much I’d need to spend for the miles to really be meaningful.

Of course, knowing that Aeroplan’s eStore isn’t tracked by either of the two tools I normally use to track shopping portals, will give me pause when I don’t see a particularly engaging Shopping Portal multiplier. This is now two outliers that I’m aware of, as Ebates has done a few promotions where they offer as much as double the cashback when using the Ebates Mobile App.

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